Plural and Possessives

[Beachguyj]

That's just wrong.

 

[gsdx]

Nah. Every noun describing any subject would demand a capital if that were the case:

How Do You Explain The Posts Which Have Every Single Word Capitalised?

 

[dpnice]

........................................The traditionalist view would hold that it is obligatory to use capital letters for a title. ..............................................................

Change 'traditionalist' to 'grammatically correct' and I would agree completely with this post.

 

[dpnice]

How Do You Explain The Posts Which Have Every Single Word Capitalised?

Oh that is one of my pet hates.

I understand why they do it but I always wonder how they do it; is it a special programme or do they hit the caps key for every word?

 

[dpnice]

^^^ On This Board, All That's Required Is To Engage The Shiftlock Key. The Software Does The Rest.

I TRIED THAT AND I END UP WITH EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS.

 

[dpnice]

I knew it! The software hates Macs!

I have a lap-top working on Windows XP. (Hope you don't mind the capital letter for Windows being that window is not a proper noun. )

 

[hermanding]

perhaps english is the language most alive and changing at present, since it has become the world's language. there are so many words from other languages in english. maybe it is good that there is not such concern with its so-called purity. the purpose of the language is to communicate, anyway
ding

 

[rareboy]

That is the reason that proper placement of apostrophes, correct grammar and proper spelling are so critical. Take these away and the meaning of the thoughts expressed is often lost and there is a failure in communications.

There is the case, for instance, of a $68 million dollar judgement based on the placement of a single comma.

 

[rareboy]

It is great to have all these necro threads back.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

I have a theory, but could you provide us with example's first?

Never posted that theory, did I?

In nutshell, people make mistakes in grammar that are correct in other related languages. 's can be plural in Dutch for words ending on strong vowels.

 

[Latimer]

In nutshell, people make mistakes in grammar that are correct in other related languages.

Excellent observation. It's certainly true of me.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Spell checkers. Spell checkers always say 's is correct.

 

[Alistair]

^ and autocorrect will change it even if you spell it correctly.

 

[Telstra]

English words are a pain in the arse.
Other languages are abit simpler.

Example of other languages:
1 dog, afew dog, many dog
1 fish, afew fish, many fish

What put an S after the word ?

 

[Autolycus]

There is another anomaly - non-countable nouns! For example sheep and cattle. Add an 's' to either of those words and they become ridiculous.

Those wretched apostrophes come about because of our laziness. [Why does 'y' become 'i' in that word?] In the 'possessive' it replaces the letter 'e' as in speech we no longer pronounce it. Otherwise it is there because we use it because we have shortened words as in can't in place of can not.

With a vocabulary of in excess of four million words, English is a fascinating language!

 

[jaynoel]

The woman who writes the church bulletin, and routinely peppers it with inappropriate apostrophes, was sitting in front of me yesterday mornning... it took all my energy to not rap her on the back of the head. I suppose I could have simply pointed out the error to her, but I couldn't think of a way of expressing myself that didn't end with "you dumbass."

You know, those of us who notice these things take a lot of flak from people when we try to correct them. But the bottom line is this: written language does not evolve at the same speed as spoken language because there isn't a person there from whom we can catch clues and contexts. Written language has to follow the rules of writing so that it can be read quickly and cleanly. I shouldn't have to pause in my reading to puzzle out what the writer is talking about.

Rather than teach myself to ignore apostrophes, which took me some time to learn how to use in the first place, I'm more likely to just dismiss the writer and stop reading. I try to have a certain amount of patience with those for whom English is a second or even fourth language, but my patience only extends so far. Eventually I just tune out.

A simple solution: Print out the most recent bulletin, correct it with a highlighter. Put it in an envelope that has her name on it and Mail it to the church. They'll see she gets it.

 

[jaynoel]

Yes, I agree that spellchecker is what is causing more and more if this.

 

[jaynoel]

*of, not if

 

[unloadonme]

I've never had any difficulty with apostrophe's.

 

[Latimer]

English words are a pain in the arse.
Other languages are abit simpler.

Example of other languages:
1 dog, afew dog, many dog
1 fish, afew fish, many fish

What put an S after the word ?

Stop complaining!

It's not simply the large reach of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the great success of the United States and other anglophone nations in the 20th that has led to the overwhelming popularity of the English language.

English may have its anomalies but it's a far less complex language to learn than any of the other ones I have some knowledge of: minimum declension and conjugation, and gender differentiation restricted to actual gender. The large vocabulary allows greater precision in speaking and writing and--I suspect--fewer homonyms and heteronyms. Finally, which of the following writing systems do you prefer to the Latin alphabet?

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/types.htm